Venoms Taunt Teh Noob

*First, you need to name your build, so players can easily find it.

Venoms Taunt Teh Noob

*Then, tell us the hero and skills.

Hero: PAIN archon(substitute this for your favorite melee int, i like archon cuz of good movespeed and good cast times, but not everyone saves)
offensive: death pulse
Defensive: taunt
misc: guardian ward
ulti: demon spawn

*Tell us how we should generally level this skills. Do not type out 1 skill per line for all 40 levels of the game; I will deny you based on that alone.

Basically for what you do is be main lvling death pulse the entire game, unless u feel it is becoming worthless( as in your opponent just got immortals boots so your pulse hurts more than helps) you want to put one point into taunt, but after that lvl ward as much as possible. i like to get death pulse, taunt, pulse, ward, pulse, ward, until ward is 5, as a lvl 5 ward gains extra auras and better atatck/hp. after that, its really up to you to get either ward or taunt depending on what your opponent has, BE FLEXIBLE WITH YOUR SKILL POINTS! many a noob has lost with this build beacuse they do not know when ward is good and when taunt is good.

*What makes this build work? How do the skills interact with each other? If this part is really short, your build fails.

Basically the premise of this build is that you control who your opponent attacks while you/your demon/your ward all do massive dmg to them and taunt prevents them from running away/doing anything with their hero.
This build has infinite variations, but generally you'll want to always hold the cards and be in control of what your opponent is doing. In duels, lay down your demon/guardian. your brill aura from items should keep your demon full mana, so have him stun your opponent or cripple or breath of fire whenever the cd is rdy. a good player will generally focus down your guardian ward first, so you use taunt to save your ward while preventing your enemy from running. you then death pulse while your opponent is attacking you taunted, the huge damage will start adding up and your opponent cannot run out of it, especially with you activating your frost staff once taunts duration runs out. your generally going to be farming ahead of your opponent, with death pulse, guard ward, AND demon all inflicting big pain on the creeps. you should keep some pressure on your opponent, but dont expect to acually kill them in ganks unless you have gotten a frost staff by that time. vs spellcasters, you should do very well. your immune to magic while death pulse is activated, allowing you to dodge many abilities and get out of roots. in addition, its virtually impossible to kite this build since you have taunt, guardian ward, and a stunning demon to kill them with whilst they run. keep in mind that while this is good 1v1, in team games its effectiveness is increased exponentially. with your demon stunning multiple enemies upon being summoned, and guardian ward getting all your allies auras, taunt affecting multiple people and death pulse hitting a bunch at once, this build gets SO MUCH BETTER in team games.

*What are your strengths and weaknesses? how will you overcome your biggest weakness?

I can't actually think of many weaknesses of this build. mana vortex is obviously your bane, killing both your ward and demon. there is no good way to stop vortex from beating you, although there are several tactics you can use to lessen its effectiveness, such as spawning your demon on the far side of your opponent and your ward right in front of them, forcing them to choose which one to vortex, leaving the other alive. also you can use taunt to stop them from vortexing, you can use taunt plus demons stun to give your stuff a decent amount of time to inflict pain before they can vortex you. also, the moment they see that you have ward and demon, they will immediately put as many points into vortex as possible. so you just stop lvling ward and start up with taunt, a no mana skill. They will gain a sense of satisfaction from killing your lvl 3 ward, but they are really just wasting skill points on vortex, and the best part is they generally wont pay attention to what lvl your ward is, and just continue to lvl vortex.

*How should this build be played?

This build should be played fairly laid back as in farming and on-the-field player vs player. This build was designed to farm very well and win in duels, and it does that job just fine. put pressure on your opponent whenever you feel it is necessary or you can pull it off. make sure to take full advantage of all your skills, only using one of them when at its maximum effectiveness. and also make sure to be flexible and dispense your skill points out so that they will do the maximum damage to whatever your opponent has.

*What general item build should be used on this? (note, GENERAL, not a complete list from level 1 to duel 15) Anyone who says "Get boots and mask" as their item set... will be banned from posting builds... Fucking idiots...

There are several different routes you can go for this build, but generally you should go for standard int items. cloak of the hidden, gradually build up to auroric set to buff your demon/ward even more, and get a frost staff. I would recommend sticking with lvl 1 frost staff, even though it only lasts 3.5 seconds to the lvl 2's 6, the cd makes it acually a better stun-to-cd ratio. you can use frost staff while death pulsing, holding them in place after your taunt wears off. in the beginning is when your really flexible, your still going to build up to the same items but you have several different routes. you can either go for lvl 1 big mana, giving you enough to cast death pulse twice (keep in mind that a lvl 1 pulse kills lvl 1 creeps in one spell) OR you can go the good ol' bombs n boots. its really your choice, i prefer bombs but everyones different. with bombs, you can cast pulse once to clear mid then go clear another spawn using bombs plus a couple of auto attacks. also bombs will be better if you decide to put early pressure on and get a kill after clearing mid, while extra mana will give you added duel power.

*And Lastly:

Some variations of this could be switching out taunt for defenders, as defenders come with taunt and get alot better from ward. but if they have vortex, your build will just be destroyed. also, the defenders taunt makes them attack the defenders, not you, lessening death pulses dmg, and can be clicked out of, making it very bad.

anything that uses taunt and is competitive gets a thumbs up from me

As much as I like looking up builds from time to time can you limit the amount of un lockable hero builds? Not everybody loads codes! However that aside this is not a bad build and can be played on most melee intelligence heroes. From time to time I suggest you try the skill sleep. Sleep makes it easy to land your taunt and death pulse combo and it makes for some interesting isolation tactics in duels.
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I really like this build; as it can even be used in a 1v1 sitution, and rarely can taunt be used in a 1 on 1 sitution. I never thought of using it to protect my summons (opposed to teamates). I suggest you try this out on whisp or Cenarious though, rather than the archon. She has instant casts, and good movespeed. Neither of which are needed in this build; so really take away from other areas that you could have a boost in.

yeah, i just like archon because she has a large amount of movement speed for farming, more of a personal preference, im still trying out this build with variations and different heroes. what i really like about this build is that every skill synergises with eachother perfectly. ward gives demon a boost, taunt stops enemy from killing ward or running away, pulse does massive dmg while they are taunted, demon stuns, ward attacks, ect ect. when i posted this i had only used it like 4 times, using archon, so ill see which hero it works best with. i suppose a counter to this would be something like bloodbath/holy armor, to own your demon and ward. apart from that, i cant really think of counters so post em if you think of one and ill figure out how to deal with it

Once you have this build figured out better, you should edit your first post a touch to include weaknesses and make the format like the suggested one; then I can move it to the approved section. this is really great use of taunt and a truly unique build because of that.

the only other time I saw taunt being used for something other than tanking, was against piss; in a 3v3. his whole team went wards and demons; and he went taunt and would pull us all into a pile of fire wards and demons. Downside, was that his taunt barely got us to all the summons, before we could run away again.

yeah glorn, once i have this build completely figured out i will put it in the right format and add in all the stuff i need. for now though, im just focusing on using it, figuring out its weaknesses, ect ect. when i posted it i had only used it a couple times, and had a hard time putting all my ideas into words since i hadnt used it much.

k, i put in in the right format and included alot of things i learned from playing it alot. you can switch it over now glorn

I am really unclear as to why you chose Deathpulse to farm on a strong int hero... i would have perferred wolves which synergize so much more strongly with gaurdian ward. But otherwise, this build is prettty unique and strong going into mid/late game. with properpositioning this build should be damn near impossible to beat

the main reasons i chose death pulse was that first, it is the best farmer in the entire game, assuming you have good positioning. death pulse will 1 shot a entire creep spawn all game, or at least take them so low they only need one auto attack to kill, you'll just need some good micro and positioning to make it hit every creep. also, death pulse synergies with taunt and ice staff so well... the main weakness of pulse is what if they run away? even assuming you have more movespeed than them, if your set to auto attack with pulse you have to stop to attack, meaning only about 1/2 or less of the dmg will hit them, using taunt before pulsing and then ice after taunt wears off(assuming you havnt been lvling taunt) will put them into 5 seconds of it, at lvl 15 i believe it is around 700 dmg a second, 3500 damage that you cannot run away from is hard to beat. ward also synergies with pulse, you can just do a full duration of pulse then lay down your ward and let the ward kill the super weak creeps while you run on to the next spawn. granted, wolves would go well with ward but they would really take away from your early game farming and overall dps. death pulse also gives you spell dmg as opposed to wolves physical, you'll need as balanced source of damage as you can, otherwise they will just stack armor and damage reduction then eat you for breakfast. plus, with wolves, this build would just become another summons build that is 100% beaten by vortex, with death pulse you can outfarm them and do more damage, eventually you should be able to win vs a person funneling points into vortex, just stop putting points into ward and lvl taunt instead.

IDK i guess i am just not convinced on the use of deathpulse on this build with deathpulse i feel like i need a fair bit of tankiness that i just don't have until at least lvl 8-9. i would even perfer frost fall or flamestrike, since this hero does have a great int gain as it is.

Early game would be toughest for this build, but with that mana pool and move speed; healing wouldnt be hard. Early game, death pulse will 1 shot creep spawns. G ward gives you armor, and will take some hits for you. Once you get demon; you can split damage with him, to max your damage output. Dont forget to bring him to base and heal him also.

Death pulse deals more damage than frost fall; and allows you to be in melee range, where you belong. Remember, you gotta keep half the damage off your ward and demon. This is an int-tank build; and it really lies in the item build to make sure you stay alive.

well i am not disputing late game, that shouldn't be a problem after grabbing evasion and what not, the main problem i see is between 1-8... the demon and ward after this point will help you farm like a beast i agree. I think i might have to go bombs on this to make it work for me if i don't have to pick gladiators gear early to just tank up a bit

I didnt say anything about late game. I consider level 8-16 to be early game still. Late game isnt until level 30+ which.. I dont believe I mentioned.

EArly game DP 1 shots creep spawns; that is, 1-8 like you are talking. With his mana pool, he can do this a lot; and use a ward as a helper.

This is level 1-8; the timeframe you are talking about. Using bombs would be a major downfall, IMO. Why? 2 seconds dead in duel anyway. You are better off being a level behind and winning the duel.

Try this build some time; starting with your basic mystics cloak. 7 for duel isnt even a challenge. Grab HP innate, and what early game weakness does this build have?

i always grab hp innate, its the best early-mid game innate in my opinion and lets me farm and early pvp like a boss. and getting to lvl 8 with this build is very easy, even without bombs. i find that getting lvl 8 for duel will let me auto win it anyways using the demon plus the big damage from pulse. after duel, you will have good farm and should be able to sweep the rest of the mid game. winning the first duel is important tho, but i always get lvl 8 for duel (unless im field pvping with the enemy, in which case they are low to) and i usually grab a potion to just in case.